Donatella Versace's New Line With M.I.A. Is a Brilliant Parody of Itself

By
Charles Manning

Oct 07, 2013

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www.versusversace.com/collections/mia

You gotta give it to Donatella Versace. This morning she released the first images of her new collaboration with British rapper MIA for Versus inspired by, of all thing, fashion bootleggers. The collection features relatively straightforward clothes (T-shirts, track suits, body-con dresses) covered in prints of modified versions of the Versace logo, altered to incorporate MIA's own name. It's the kind of stuff you would expect to buy out of some sketchy guy's trunk along with bags from "FANDI" and shoes from "JIMMY CHO", but that's what makes it so great. It's a luxury parody of a parody of luxury, which can sometimes be so ridiculous that it seems to parody itself.

Take Celine for example. In 2011 designer Pheobe Philo featured a white cotton logo tee in her 2012 resort collection that retailed for over $400. Even at that ridiculous price, or maybe because of it, the shirt was a huge hit and sold out almost immediately.

Capitalizing on the success and ultimate silliness of the "CELINE PARIS" $400 tee, fashion parody designer Brian Lichtenberg came out with his own version "FELINE MEOW" at the much more reasonable, though still not cheap, price of $60. It was an instant hit with the fashion set, and soon sold on Net-a-porter alongside real Celine merchandise. Celine stopped making logo tees, but Brian Lichtenberg and a small group of other designers went on to create a whole industry of luxury parody clothing.

Of course, not everyone is so good humored about the rise of fashion parody merchandise and knock-offs. Rumor has it that Chanel has a whole office of lawyers whose only job is to seek out and shut down unauthorized usage of the Chanel logo. And Hedi Slimane made headlines recently when he cancelled Paris fashion mecca Colette's 2014 spring wholesale order of almost $300,000 after he found outthey were selling T-shirts that read "AIN'T LAURENT WITHOUT YVES."

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Even the bootleggers themselves are starting to get in on the outrage. In September Brian Lichtenberg sued his brother, and former collaborator, Christopher, for $100 million for his "BALLIN" tee shirts, a copy of Lichtenbergs own "BALLIN" merch, which is itself a parody of the Balmain logo.

With all this insanity going on, you gotta hand it to Donatella for flipping theswitch. Her logo mania prints are very much on-trend — designers like DKNY and Alexander Wang who both showed logo-heavy spring 2014 runway collections with a subversive edge and a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor. The fact is, no matter what designers do, there will always be knock-offs and parodies. Sometimes it's better not to fight and just embrace it.